Relational Aggression in Adolescents Across Different Cultural Contexts: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Relational aggression is defined as harming peers’ relationships through exclusion, rumors, and manipulation. Seminal work on adolescent relational aggression has documented its prevalence across diverse cultural settings. However, efforts to investigate the impact of cultural norms on relational aggression are limited. The purpose of the present review is to present the existing research on relational aggression across cultures during adolescence, a developmental period where the importance of peer relations peaks. Emphasis was placed on gender differences in relational aggression cross-culturally. A systematic literature search between 2010 and 2022 yielded 76 published studies, classified according to studies’ characteristics (participants, information source, study’s design), gender differences and relational aggression’s prevalence. Adolescents in European and American countries reported low scores on relational aggression, while the majority of the studies that were conducted in Asia indicated higher engagement in relational aggression. In Africa and Australia, the findings were inconclusive regarding the prevalence of relational aggression. One third of the studies found non-significant gender differences in adolescent relational aggression. The majority of the studies in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe showed that males scored higher on relational aggression, while in America most of the research demonstrated higher scores for females. Future comparative research on relational aggression during adolescence across cultures is suggested.